public business heretofore transacted at said town of Sunbury, should be held and transacted at the said town of Riceborough,” to which place the County offices and records were to be removed.[232] Riceborough was a more convenient point for shipping to Savannah the rice, cotton, and agricultural products of the County, and was much more central for the facile convocation of the citizens and the transaction of public business. Sunbury, however, still remained the favorite resort of the wealthier planters during the summer months, and maintained a permanent population of perhaps four hundred. The hurricane of 1804, with its wild devastations, begat a sense of insecurity in the minds of not a few dwellers on the coast, and to some extent diminished the population of the town. Soon afterwards, Bermuda grass began to overspread the bluff and cover, with its deep mat, the streets and lanes. With its importation the health of the place became sensibly affected. Chills and high grades of bilious fever grew frequent in the fall of the year, and from time to time removals occurred to healthier localities. Many citizens still clung to their old homes rendered so pleasant by the refreshing sea-breezes and the never-failing stores of the waters and the orchards, and Sunbury for many years continued to be the abode of culture, hospitality, and ease. Then came the hurricane of 1824 blowing down out-houses, bearing away fences, bringing in the sea in great masses, and carrying fear to many, and even death to some who resided at exposed points. The wild indigo disappeared more rapidly than ever, and the dark Bermuda grass asserted its dominion on every hand. From the numerous cattle accustomed to feed upon its common and wander through its streets and lanes, and from the refuse of the town, now no longer new, the original sandy soil became saturated with fertilizing matter, and grew rich. Thence, under the heat of autumnal suns, year by year rose exhalations annually more and more prejudicial to health. Chills and fevers were more frequent, and Sunbury proved less and less attractive as a summer resort. In 1829 Sherwood describes the town as having “a flourishing academy, a house of worship for the Baptists, twenty dwelling houses, two stores, three offices, and a population of one hundred and fifty.”[233] Ten years before, the Sunbury Female Asylum had been incorporated by the Legislature of Georgia.[234] Supported by the generous charities of kind-hearted women, it never enjoyed a vigorous existence, and after some years suffered a languishing death.